The Whacky World Of Japanese Ice Cream

fish-ice-creamOkay, having properly congratulated the Japanese people on their National Day (whenver that may be), I can now tell you what I was doing on that Japanese newspaper’s web site: I was looking at a photoessay on bizarre Japanese ice creams. The flavors covered were:

  • Fish Ice Cream
  • Octopus Ice Cream
  • Squid Ice Cream
  • Ox Tongue Ice Cream
  • Sweet Potato Ice Cream
  • Fried Eggplant Ice Cream
  • Crab Ice Cream
  • Corn Ice Cream
  • Koshihikari Rice Ice Cream
  • Wasabi Ice Cream
  • Shrimp Ice Cream
  • Eel Ice Cream
  • Nagoya Noodle Ice Cream
  • Chicken Wing Ice Cream
  • Miso Ice Cream
  • Cactus Ice Cream

If you go to the site, you can see pictures of these ice creams (well, of their containers, anyway) and read reviews of what they taste like. (The reviews contain English puns and seem to reflect an English-speaker’s viewpoint).

COMMENTS-BOX POLL!

What is your reaction to these ice creams: Which sounds most awful? Which sounds most possibly not-awful? Which would you be most interested to try? Click the comments box to see my answers and add your own!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

20 thoughts on “The Whacky World Of Japanese Ice Cream”

  1. Ox Tongue Ice Cream and Squid Ice Cream are about tied for the most disgusting. But then again I am not sure about Wasabi.
    Most tolerable might be Cactus Ice Cream. If it were Nopales cactus then this might not be SO bad.
    I would try Cactus then Corn.

  2. Sweet Potato ice cream sounds interesting but I’m definitely skipping Wasabi. If I remember correctly, wasabi is a Japanese hot sauce and I have never been able to tolerate spicy food.

  3. Umm…eel and ox tongue sound really disgusting. Sweet potato ice cream might not be so bad. I’ve had pumpkin ice cream, and that’s not too far off, flavor wise.

  4. Cactus ice cream actually sounds appealing.
    Fish ice cream definitely the worst (close second: Ox Tongue ice cream). Fish doesn’t belong anywhere near ice cream.

  5. My picks . . .
    MOST DISGUSTING: Ox Tongue Ice Cream (nearly tied w/Fish and Squid)
    MOST POSSIBLY NOT DISGUSTING: Sweet Potato Ice Cream (near ties w/Corn and Cactus)
    MOST INTERESTED IN TRYING: Wasabi Ice Cream (near tie w/Miso)
    Mia, fyi, wasabi is Japanese radish. It is *very* hot and is normally served as a little pile of green paste that you mix with soy sauce (to dilute its potency) and then dip sushi and other tidbits in. I’d be most interested in trying it just to see what it tastes like (and to say I’d done it), though not because I’d think I’d enjoy it.
    Same reason I’ve eaten durian candy before.

  6. I’m surprised that corn would be in the list and that people would try cactus before corn. Is that an American and Japanese thing?
    Certainly octopus, etc. are weird enough, even in Japan, but corn? Corn is delicious!
    Try this recipe:
    – A can of sweet corn (not the cream style variety).
    – Lots of ice cream cubes (20 or so)
    – Milk (any kind)
    – Sugar (if you want. I don’t)
    Dump everything in a blender (including the liquid from the can of corn), then blend to milkshake consistency, and you have something similar to corn ice cream (what you have is “corn shake”). Delicious in summer!
    (I like it better than orange ice cream, which doesn’t seem to exist).

  7. Fish Ice Cream, Octopus Ice Cream, Squid Ice Cream – for all of the above, I *might* be persuaded to try these for the right price.
    Fried Eggplant Ice Cream -Doesn’t sound so bad, but I don’t think I’d order it. I’d try a bite from my husband’s dish.
    Koshihikari Rice Ice Cream – the reviewer thought this was awful, but I think it sounds OK.
    Cactus Ice Cream -This sounds good, I would try it.
    Wasabi Ice Cream -I like the painful wasabi experience, so I would try this one too.

  8. If I had to pick a couple to try, I’d go for the eggplant and the rice. Eggplant is actually pretty bland in flavor, as is rice (I once bought some Mexican-style rice ice cream; it tasted like rice pudding and was heavy on the cinnamon). Or is there something unusual about the flavor of “koshihikari” rice?
    For the rest, though, I’ll prefer to stick with French Vanilla and Chocolate (the blacker the better).

  9. What? No sea-urchin ice cream?
    When I lived in Japan, my roommate’s father made me eat an uni-temaki the size of a gigantic waffle cone. It took me a while to finish…

  10. I probably wouldn’t be clamoring to eat fish, eel, squid, or ox tongue ice cream.
    Cactus and miso ice cream may possibly taste good.
    I’d be most interested in trying sweet potato, corn, or rice ice cream. Heck, I’ve even tried cheese ice cream, it’s not that bad.

  11. japanese sweet potatoes taste like chestnuts, so JAPANESE sweet potato ice cream would probably taste pretty good, if you like chestnuts.

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